It’s a camp packed with Art and rich history with a Batavia flare. The Holland Land Office Museum is kicking off their summer camp on July 24th and it will teach young kids the history of Batavia. Coordinator of the Summer Program Anne Marie Starowitz says their field first trip will be to the Cemetery on Harvester Avenue.
"They are going to learn about famous Batavians that began Batavia and that are buried there. The highlight of the program this year, I think, is they are going to do a play,” said Starowitz. “The children will become these people and the stage will be the museum.”
Starowitz says the camp is not only fun, but its educational. She said they will be having a muck day where kids will get a simulated experience of how it was to work on the muck.
“They are going to be picking potatoes and onions, they are going to have relay races, but first they are going to get an overview of what it was like working in the muck.”
Starowitz says the camp is an opportunity for children to learn where they came from. And she says it’s very important to know your past in order to move forward into the future.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is their history and when they get into school they will be learning more about their history,” says Starowitz. “But they need the background of where they come from.”
Starowitz says they only have four spots left open for the camp. She says if your child is interested in history this camp will especially help nurture that passion. The last day of registration for the History Hero’s Summer Camp is Tuesday.

The statewide effort to crack down on drinking while driving will begin this weekend. For the July 4th Holiday all law enforcement agencies will be conducting sobriety checkpoints to deter impaired driving as part of the STOP-DWI enforcement effort. Genesee County Sherriff Gary Maha says he expects this to be a busy weekend for lawmen.
“We will have patrols out look for drivers,” said Maha. “There are a lot of people travelling around this time of the year, on vacation and going on camping trips and such. In addition, there a number of concerts and events scheduled at Darien Lake.”
Maha says the effort is done to keep everyone safer on roadways and the beefed up enforcement will go until July 5th.
“It is all part of our effort to keep the highway safe for you and me and the travelling public. Nobody wants anybody’s family injured or killed because a person is out there drinking and driving.”

It’s a healthcare plan that has a lot of Western New Yorkers asking what’s next. This week the Supreme Court voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act, which will provide those who are uninsured access to healthcare coverage. WBTA spoke to the Vice President of Medical Affairs at United Memorial Medical Center to get some answers on how the bill would affect the small hospital. Michael Merrill says a positive is that the hospital won’t be providing free care to people, which right now is a financial loss.
“With more people having insurance that’s better for the public health, because not having insurance means you do not seek care as often,” said Merrill. “I’d say the negatives are that the act does not do a lot to contain costs and that’s still a political hot potato, there are a lot of sources of waste in the system that is going to have to be addressed.”
Merrill says the hospital will hire more staff if they see an increase in foot traffic at the facility when the bill is implemented.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of providers to handle the situation, this is going to be a gradual process, this is not a turning on the faucet type of situation, you know we can adapt and I believe we have the capacity in the system to handle it,” said Merrill.
As part of the conditions of the health care bill starting in 2014, everyone must purchase insurance or face fines.